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CYCLOPS #1
"Odyssey Chapter One: If Looks Could Kill"
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Pencils: Mark Texeira
Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti
Colors: Transparency Digital
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Mike Marts
Price: $2.50 US/$3.75 CAN |
Cyclops, leader of the
X-Men, is not the immediate choice for a solo project. His main characterization
over the past few years has been "the stiff" with the occasional bout of
"nuttier than a Chinese chicken salad" thrown in. Nevertheless, Marvel has
decided to go forward with a slew of solo mini-series for various X-Men, and
Cyclops is first up. The book has a talented creative team, but making the
leader of the team, someone who has always defined himself by his relationship
to the X-Men, into a solo character is a hard task, and while this is certainly
readable, it mostly feels like an X-Men story that for some reason doesn't
include more than one X-Man.
To give Vaughan proper credit, he does a
credible job of making Cyclops an interesting character, even without resorting
to the wise-cracking that Lobdell used in his last attempt or the lunatic calm
that Morrison has had the character adopt. The defining moment of the issue for
me came when Cyclops went to see Professor X and relayed the readiness of the
team and the status of his training before finally getting that Xavier was
asking the simple question of "how are you doing?" There's a fair bit of
narration from Cyclops in the issue, and Vaughan gives the character a voice
that is full of experience and calm analysis, but laced with a cynical sense of
humor. And a confrontation between Cyclops and powerhouse villains Black Tom and
the Juggernaut really shows off Cyclops's tactical abilities well.
The artwork isn't as impressive as
Texeira's last regular art gig, where he was doing fully painted work, but it's
nice stuff. In particular, the opening scene with the Sentinels is incredibly
impressive, and the aforementioned confrontation with the Juggernaut and Black
Tom is done very well, conveying the cold atmosphere and the action in fine
style.
So as I said, the basics are well-covered,
with an entertaining voice and good artwork. The problem is that the story has
to contort itself to explain why Cyclops is off on his own and why he doesn't
call the X-Men in, and the rationales make little sense given who the character
is. The other problem is that, like so many solo stories of Wolverine, Gambit,
Bishop or other X-Men, we know from the start that it's not going to make any
substantive changes in the character, and it feels mostly like it's spinning its
wheels until the fourth issue rolls around. There's really no reason for Cyclops
to be off on his own, and the notion of a hero taking a vacation and finding
themselves involved in a caper is predictable and tired for me at this
point.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
